rutty



(No Model.)

W. H. RUTTYV FASTENER FOR GLOVES, 850. No. 531,864. Patented Jan, 1,1895.

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UNITED STATES VILLIAM H. RUTTY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

FASTENER FOR GLOVES; 8w.

SlECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 531,864, dated January1, 1895.

Application filed August 1, 189d. Serial No. 519,151. (No model.)

To all whom it 11mg concern:

Be it known that 1, WILLIAM H. RUTTY, a

subject of the Queen of Great Britain, and a resident of the city andcounty of New York,

State of New York, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements inFasteners for Gloves, 860., of which the following is a specification,reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part hereof.

This invention relates to fastening devices such as are employed ingloves, shoes and other wearing apparel, purses, umbrella cases, andinnumerable other articles, in which it is desirable to have a securefastening and one that may be readily opened or u nfastened and closedor fastened as desired.

One of the objects of this invention is to provide a fastening devicewhich shall be positively locked against longitudinal strain so that theflaps or parts held together by my improved fastening device cannot besprung apart and can only be separated under the usual longitudinalstrains to which these parts are subjected by actually breaking thefastenor; and my invention also has for its object to attain thisadvantageous feature of a locked fastener in a structure having noprotuberant levers and having no other exposed part when the fastener isclosed than a cap which may be made to represent a button or may beornamented or otherwise given a comely and acceptable appearance.

The improved fastener or clasp embodying my invention is made up of twomembers adapted to be secured to the parts or flaps of the glove orother article that are to be held together, one member to each part orflap, and these two members are adapted to fit one over the other whenthe fastener is closed. The lower or inner member is provided with aswinging or pivoted lever and is so constructed that when the lever isswung into closed po- 'sition the engaging part of the other or outermember will be locked against longitudinal strains.

The upper or outer member of my fastener is provided with aguide-surface and with an engaging part or surface and is so constructedthat when this upper member is swung into closed position itsguide-surface will engage with the lever and swing the lever over intoclosed position so that the engaging part of the upper member will belocked against its counterpart in the lower member of the fastener. Thisguide-surface and engaging part are arranged on the lower face of theupper part or flap of the garment to which said member is secured andthe swinging lever in moving into engaging or locked position does notat any time pass above the upper part or flap of the garment, and whenthe upper member of the fastener is closed down upon and locked againstthe lower member of the fastener, the lever and lower parts of the uppermember are concealed from view.

W hen the fastener is closed the members are locked together againstlongitudinal strain and cannot be sprung open by longitudinal strains,but when it is desired to open the fastener, the outer end of the uppermember may be swung upward and by this upward movement it will swing thelever into open position and cause the engaging part of the upper memberto be turned out of engagement with the lower member of the fastener sothat the two parts of the garment may be readily and quickly separated.

The upper member of the improved fas-' toner embodying my invention isprovided with a cap on the upper surface of the upper part of thegarment and this cap is the only exposed part of the fastener when thefastener is closed or locked, and may be made to resemble a button orornamented in any desired manner, and thus my improved fastener is ofneat appearance and in fact attains the ideal of-perfection in thisparticular.

The accompanying drawings illustrate an embodiment of my invention andare eularged to more clearly show the invention.

Figure 1 is a longitudinal sectional elevation showing the members ofthe fastener in open position, but in such relative position that thefastener may be closed by simply swinging down the upper member. Fig. 2is a side elevation with the members in the same position as shown inFig. 1. Fig. 3 is a longitudinal section showing the fastener closed andthe two members tightly locked together. Fig. 4 is a transverse sectionof the upper part of the garment and the upper member of the fastener.

The lower or inner member of the fastener as shown in the drawings is ofsubstantially the same construction, except as to the shape of thelever, as that employed in well-known lever clasps, and comprises abase-plate h secured to the flap or part g of the garment or 5 articleby means of prongs passing through the material of the garment orarticle from a lower plate i, and this base-plate h is provided withupwardly extending lugs j suitably shaped to lock the engaging part ofthe other memberof the fastener, and'in these lugs j is pivoted aswinging lever d, the'lower edge of which works against a spring orspring tongue e struck up from the base-plate h. This lever 61 isusually considerably smaller than the levers heretofore employed inlever clasps for the reason that'in the closing operation it is notmanipulated directly by the fingers of the user. as in the lever claspsheretofore employed. It is of course evident that the form andconstruction of this lever member of the fastener may be varied andother forms and constructions of swinging levers and controlling andholding devices may be employed Without departing from my invention.

The upper or outer member of the fastener comprises the guide-plate cwhich is shown as concave or dish shaped and has a crossbar a whichforms the engaging part of the upper member. This OIOSS-bLI'Cb is shownas secured to the guide-plate c and may be soldered or riveted .orotherwise securely fastened thereto, or may be in one piece therewith.The guide-plate is held in place by fas- 5 tening prongs b 1) extendingfrom the cap I) through the upper flap or partf of the fabric. This capI) is placed upon the upper surface of the upper part or flap of thegarment or article, and is shown as having a turned over flange alongits edge so that it has a rounded bearing surface upon the materialaround its edges and will not cut the material, and the material is heldbetween the cap b and the guide-plate c, and is only perforated at the 45 points where the prongs b I) extend through the material, and when theprongs b b are turned over upon the guide-plate c the material is archedor bulged upward and very tightly clamped between the two parts and thusthe two parts are securely held in place upon the garment or article.

The length of the lever 01 is preferably so adjusted relatively to thecross-bar a that when the parts are brought together in the manner shownin Fig. 1 preparatory to closing the fastener the lever 01 will justclear the lower portion of the cross-bar a. In closing the fastener ifthe lever is in open position, which is the position to which it ismoved by 6 o the operation of opening the fastener as shown in Fig. 1,it is only necessary to bring the parts together into about the positionshown in Fig. 1 and then swing the upper member downward upon the lowermember. The

lever 01 will strike the guide-surface of the guide-plate c and will beguided by that surface and turned over until it reaches such positionthat the spring e will act to throw it into locked position and then thespring will act and the lever will carry the upper member of thefastener and the cross-bar a into the position shown in Fig. 3, with thecrossbar 0, held against the locking faces of the lugsj. WVhen the partsare in this position the spring 6 acts to hold the lever in closedposition and the lever acts to hold the crossbarin locked positionagainst the locking faces of the lugs j and the members of the fastenerare so securely and tightly locked together against longitudinal strainthat they cannot be separated and sprung apart and cannot be separatedby the usual longitudinal strains, and in fact cannot be separated by alongitudinal strain except upon the exertion of a a force sufficientlystrong to break the fastener. My improved fastener thus positively locksthe parts together so that they cannot be sprung apart or separated bythe usual wearing strains. This feature is of great importance, as forinstance in gloves, where the movements of the wrists of the wearerfrequently throwa very heavylongitudinal strain upon the fastener, sothat fasteners which depend upon spring action to resist longitudinalstrains are frequently sprung open. When, however, it is desired to openthe fastener it is only necessary to move upward the outer or right handend of the upper member of the fastener and this movement, which tendsto lift the cross-bar a vertically upward, also throws the lever upwardand results in bringing the parts again to about the position shown inFig. 1, so that the two flaps may be readily separated.

It will thus be seen that my improved fastener possesses the veryimportant advantage in fasteners of this kind that it may be readily andquickly manipulated either to open or close it by a single simplemovement of 'the fingers of the operator, and that the mere work ofplacing one member over the other ca uses the parts to assume theirlocked position while the work of removing one part from over the otherunlocks the fastener.

Another feature of my invention which will be evident from the abovedescription is that no part of the lower member protrudes through theupper member or through the flap of the material to which the uppermember is socured and no moving part of the fastener comes in contactwith the upper or outer surface of the material so that there is no fearof soiling or marring the appearance of articles such as gloves of themost delicate colors by my improved fastener, and the absence ofprotruding parts prevents all possibility of the members of thisfastener being caught in any other garment or catching against anyprojectioh.

The terms upper and lower applied to the outer and inner members of thefastener in the above description and employed in describing theconstruction and operation in the description and claims are notintended to limit the construction to a vertical arrange mentone overthe other of the two members as the members would be side by side if theflaps were vertical and would assumeother positions with the flaps inoblique or other positions, but these terms are used for clearness andconvenience in describing the construction and operation of the severalparts.

It will be evident that various modifications may be made in thestructure above described without departing from my invention. I do nottherefore limit my invention to the specific construction shown andabove particularly described, but

What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. A fastener comprising two members, the inner member containing apivoted lever and the outer member containing a guide piece beneath thesurface of the outer flap or part of the article to which said fasteneris secured, said guide piece adapted to come in contact with and guidethe pivoted lever of the inner member when the members are broughttogether, thereby moving the lever into closed position beneath saidouter flap, and an engaging part of the outer member over which saidlever is thrown when put in locked position, whereby the fastener may beclosed and the parts locked together by the operation of moving onemember over the other, substantially as set forth.

2. A fastener comprising two members, the inner member containing apivoted lever and the outer member containing a concave guide piece uponthe lower surface of the outer flap or part of the article to which saidfastener is secured, and said outer member containing an engaging partbelow the guiding surface of said guide piece, and said inner memberbeing provided with a counterpart against which the engaging part of theouter member is held when the fastener is closed whereby the two membersare locked together, substantially as set forth.

3. A fastener comprising two members, the outer member having a concaveguide piece upon the lower surface of the outer part or flap of thearticle, and said guide piece having a crossbar therein, and the innermember having a pivoted spring lever and logs against which saidcross-bar is engaged when the fastener is closed, substantially as setforth.

4. A fastener comprising two members, the outer member having a concaveguide piece upon the lower surface of the outer part or flap of thearticle, and said guide piece having a cross-bar therein, and a convexcap upon the upper surface of said outer flap and prongs passing throughthe material and holding the convex cap and concave guide piecetogether, and the inner member having a lever pivoted in lugs extendingupward from a base plate, and a spring for actuating said lever, thelever being adapted to come in contact with said concave guide piecewhen the members are brought together whereby said lever is thrown intolocked position overthe cross-bar and the cross-bar is brought intolocking engagement with the lugs of the inner member, substantially asset forth.

This specification signed and witnessed this 28th day of July, A. D.1894.

V. H. EUTTY.

In presence of- HENRY D. WILLIAMs, E. M. TAYLOR.

